Leslie Morris Nelson (1887 - 1918)

Born 12 Sep 1887 in Gannvalley, Buffalo, Dakota Territory, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Providencia (Rodriguez) Nelson — married 1913 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Died 11 Apr 1918 at age 30 in Grant Township, Story, Iowa, United States

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Biography

^[1] Leslie Morris Nelson was born 12 September 1887 in Gann Valley, Dakota Territory, the son of George Nelson and Carrie Tesdahl. When he grew up, he didn’t like farming so after the crops were planted one spring he packed up all of his clothes and, with two neighbors, left for Des Moines. He went to his Aunt Bertha Olson Sutherland and she advised him to go home. When George came to get him, Leslie told him he didn’t want to farm, but wanted to study Engineering at Highland Park College in Des Moines, which his father let him do. After graduation he was hired to manage the San Juan Electric Plant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While there, he met and married Providencia Rodriguez in 1913. She was born in San Juan. She was very pretty and had a pleasant disposition. When he brought her home to Iowa it was very exciting. She had long black hair she could sit on. She had a trousseau of pastel dresses and shoes with jeweled beads. They brought gifts of straw purses and a hammock and exotic canned fruits. Leslie had a camera and took pictures of everyone. The family all loved Providencia. She taught Lillian and Beulah Spanish songs and made beautiful lace. Leslie got an engineering job in Ohio and they moved to Toledo. In 1917, Providencia was afflicted with Bright’s disease (inflammation of the kidneys); she died later that year. Leslie took her body to San Juan for interment. When he was standing by her grave, he looked out at the ocean and said he felt like jumping in. When he came home he tried to get over losing her but was very depressed. He was on the farm with [his brother] Orville on 11 April 1918, when he took a gun and went out behind the barn and shot himself.^[2] The interment was in Cambridge, Iowa.

Sources

1. ↑ Nelson Family History, compiled and edited by Vernon W. Nelson in 2003, as related to him at various times by his father, Orville F. Nelson, his aunt, Lillian B. Nelson James, and with notes from his aunts Florence E. Nelson Waltmire and Verna E. Nelson Funkhouser.
2. ↑ Iowa Death Certificate #85-01879, Leslie Morris Nelson, 11 Apr 1918, Grant Township, Story, Iowa, United States, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, IA.

• United States Census, 1900. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMRM-DPN : accessed 28 February 2020), Leslie M. Nelson in household of George S Nelson, Eldorado & Elvira Township Schools, Buffalo, South Dakota, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 70, sheet 8A, family 60, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,547.
• United States Census, 1910. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGSS-S5L : accessed 1 March 2020), Leslie M Nelson, Des Moines Ward 4, Polk, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 125, sheet 3B, family , NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 420; FHL microfilm 1,374,433.
• Find A Grave Index. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV27-MYPB : 13 December 2015), Leslie Morris Nelson, 1918; Burial, Cambridge, Story, Iowa, United States of America, Cambridge Cemetery; citing record ID 65877816, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.